CELEBRATING WOMEN IN MINISTRY

Women in ministry has been a reality at the American Baptist Seminary of the West for more than 75 years. Female graduates serve as pastors, missionaries, nonprofit executives, and professors across the U.S. and around the world. That pioneering position makes the school proud. But ABSW is not resting on its laurels.

Given the dynamics of denominational life today—the challenges women still face in being hired as pastors and the struggles they encounter once in ministry—seminary leaders recognize they are called to be more pro-active.

“We’re all much more open and conscious of the fact that we have to be advocates,” says the Rev. Michelle Holmes, vice president for seminary relations.

To that end, the seminary has become more active in placement, giving names of female students and alumnae to pastoral search committees. The school has also been instrumental in reviving Women in Professional Ministry, a network for American Baptist pastoral leaders in Northern California.

ABSW has one of the largest female faculties among Baptist seminaries in the U.S., with six women teaching biblical studies, church history, theology, worship and practical ministry. More than 60 percent of students are women, with the majority being African American.

“It’s a given to our institution that women are called to ministry,” says Dr. LeAnn Flesher, associate professor of Old Testament and acting academic dean while Dr. George C. L. Cummings is on sabbatical.

“I feel the ministry is to be aware of the leading of the Holy Spirit, to equip and edify and proclaim that Jesus Christ is our Savior, not only to those inside the church but also in our surrounding communities. To be God's instruments to help others discover the good news of Jesus Christ and to help discover each other's spiritual gifts. It is also my understanding that as the family of God we need to work with our community and the world around us to help those that are in need and oppressed.”

—Rev. Patty Oscarson (’00), minister of youth, First Baptist Church, Salem, Ore.

An Historic Commitment

Women have had an equal place at ABSW for much of the school’s 131-year history. In 1914, five years before women won the right to vote in the U.S., seminary President Claiborne Hill spoke on the significance of feminism, saying “it may be believed that on the whole and in the process of time it will be found that the women’s movement was the most beneficent achievement of this age of progress.”

The seminary graduated its first women in 1923. Years later, according to Sandford Fleming’s history of ABSW, For the Making of Ministers, President Hill said, “It is doubtful if at that time any other theological school in our country or in any other was open to women as well as men, and on equal terms.”

In welcoming women into the school, ABSW acknowledged the reality of female leadership in the church. Dr. Margaret McManus, assistant professor of American religious history, notes how women helped form and build the church over hundreds of years, providing leadership that often went unrecognized and unrecorded.

“Knowing this history is a support for women in ministry and an inspiration,” McManus says. “One of the things this history does is remind us that women’s ministry is not a new thing, not a fad, but a longstanding tradition in the church.”

“Ministry, to me, is touching and serving people at the point of their need(s) with the love of Jesus Christ. In other words, it is practicing love as described in the thirteenth Chapter of First Corinthians and sharing the fruit of the Spirit: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Gal. 5:22). Using the special gifts and talents that God has given each of us, we are challenged to serve others with the guidance of the Holy Spirit.”

—Rev. Julia Burns-Robinson (’99), President and CEO of Everlasting Hope Ministries, El Cerrito, Calif.

A Present Concern

ABSW leaders proudly point to their history, but they also note a growing commitment at the seminary to women in ministry. That commitment is manifested in a stellar team of female scholars working in the areas of biblical studies, theology, American religious history, and practical ministry. And the commitment is demonstrated through multiple perspectives.

This fall Dr. Marian Ronan, assistant professor of contemporary theology and religion, is teaching an introduction to feminist and womanist theologies. Her course does not “assume a universal woman who transcends all nationalities and cultural backgrounds,” Ronan says, but rather reflects women’s diverse experiences.

ABSW’s female students represent a variety of ethnicities, ages, and faith perspectives. “So there’s an enormous richness in the women who are here in terms of life experience and the variety of things these women are looking towards in ministry,” McManus says.

“ABSW is fulfilling a crucial role and need as a place where women can be trained and affirmed in their call as instruments of the Lord,” says the Rev. Valerie Miles-Tribble, a 2001 graduate who is now assistant pastor at Imani Community Church in Oakland and chaplain at ABSW.

While the idea of women in ministry is regarded as a “done deal” within the seminary, the challenge now is to overcome barriers to placement and to support women in the difficult work of doing ministry, ABSW leaders say.

“We are troubled by the decline in opportunities for women to serve in American Baptist churches, particularly here in the West,” says President Keith Russell. “Knowing that this is the case, we must be much more aggressive in placement and we must call out churches to be partners with us in advocacy.”

Congregations are critical for the calling and nurturing of women in ministry, seminary leaders note. The Rev. Katie Choy-Wong, ABSW’s director of admissions and instructor in ministry, remembers how her congregation’s support during high school was instrumental in her answering the call.

“It began with members of my church recognizing the gifts and leadership abilities I had,” says Choy-Wong, who is also co-pastor of New Life Christian Fellowship in Castro Valley, Calif. “It was confirmed after college as I began working in the area of domestic hunger, helping persons in need. I saw the Church at its best, ministering to the least, in the name of Jesus Christ. I could no longer run away. God was calling me to ministry.”

Women in ministry also need support outside their congregations. Choy-Wong meets regularly with a group of Asian American women in ministry. The Women in Professional Ministry network is also meeting this need for fellowship and support.

Flesher says ABSW was very supportive of her efforts to revive the network, which was previously a program of the American Baptist Churches of the West. The group sponsors two major training events each year for American Baptist women in ministry, one in the fall [see article above], the other in the spring. In between, support groups meet. Here, Flesher says, participants discover their commonality across cultural groups.

“It’s one of the rare places where I see the multicultural community gel,” she says.

Flesher often closes such gatherings with a prayer that calls on God to not allow the women to become so disillusioned in ministry that they want to quit. And she asks for God’s help navigating this difficult terrain. The prayer often moves participants, she says.

“It really touches on the pain that’s present and at the same time it says ‘Don’t get stuck there. Keep on moving.’”

Recognizing the challenges women still face in certain denominational quarters, ABSW leaders see their task as being a prophetic voice.

“There’s still a very significant battle for women,” says Dr. Judy Yates Siker, newly arrived at ABSW as assistant professor of New Testament. “We need to let our voices be heard because the other voices are loud.”